Any Fool
by Kavi Leighanna
Summary: An anonymous blood donor during Hotch's shooting mixes pasts and emotions Emily hadn't been anticipating.
1. Prologue: Perfect Grace

_**Things You Need to Know:**_

_**Emily didn't have the abortion. I was writing something for Out Living My Life today, and it hit me out of thin air... what if Emily hadn't had the abortion and had a baby when she was fifteen? And this is how it started.**_

_**So, this is AU. Not quite as AU as I've written in the past, but AU nonetheless. Please hit the little button after you've read this and let me know what you think? I'd appreciate it huge**._

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Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**PROLOGUE**

_**Perfect Grace**_

_January 1986_

She looked down at the little stick in her hand in surprise, awe and blatant terrible fear. The answer was there, plain as day. She felt tears swell in her eyes as she felt Matthew wrap what was meant to be a comforting arm around her shoulders.

Pregnant.

What was she supposed to do?

"Well, Em, you have to make a decision," Matthew replied seriously.

She hadn't realized she'd said the words aloud. She drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a slow exhale, trying to keep herself from bursting into hysterics. She was pregnant. She had a decision to make. God, she didn't know what to do! "I don't know."

Matthew's hand rubbed her shoulder, trying to give her strength and comfort. "What does your heart say, Em?"

Her heart told her to keep the baby. Her heart told her that there would be nothing more precious in her life than a child. But her head… Her head was her dominant in these kind of debates. Her head told her that her parents would be disappointed. Her head told her she'd be letting them down, and her head told her that it would be a disgrace. "But what about my parents?"

He cupped her chin in his hand, turning her to face him. "Screw your parents. This isn't about them. This is about you and about what you feel is right and about what you want. Your parents… they should love you regardless. Parental love isn't conditional."

She'd always felt like it was. She needed to be the perfect daughter for her parents. She needed to put on the perfect image for her parents.

"Emily, stop it. What do _you_ want?"

She took a deep breath, trying to push back everything but her own feelings. It was difficult. Compartmentalizing was her life and she preferred to look at everything in a rational light. She was _fifteen_! But that didn't stop what her heart was feeling. "I want this baby."

"Then have the baby."

She looked up at him with teary eyes. "I can't do this alone," she whispered.

"You won't be alone," Matthew replied with a conviction she had no choice but to believe. "If John isn't going to be there, I will. That's a promise."

He'd never broken a promise to her before. Ever. She took a deep breath, a very deep breath, looking over to him. The look in his eyes made her feel like everything was going to be okay. She needed everything to be okay. "Okay."

* * *

_November 1986_

Emily looked down at the little bundle of pink wrapped in her arms. She'd done it. She'd actually done it. She'd given birth to a healthy baby girl. Her heart was swollen with emotions and she knew she looked like hell, but Matthew stood beside her, a wide grin on his face as he looked down at them both.

He'd been right. Her parents had been surprised, shocked, and yes, disappointed. It had taken them a few months to come to terms with the fact that their teenaged daughter was going to have a baby. But somehow, someway, they'd managed to accept it. Her father had been the first to come around, and he'd been the one to make all of the arrangements to get her back to the States. It was time the Prentiss family set down actual roots and Emily was glad. She didn't want her baby raised in the cutthroat, constantly shifting world that she had. She wanted better for her daughter.

"Look at her, Em," Matthew whispered. He'd transferred with her, intent on seeing this through to the very end, no matter what. John hadn't been ready for a child, and Emily refused to 'do the right thing' and marry him because of the pregnancy. Matthew had been her sole source of support until her father came around to the idea. She had no idea what she would have done without Matthew by her side.

"She's beautiful," she heard him whisper again. "Gorgeous."

Emily smiled down at her daughter, stroking her little face. "She's mine, Matthew. I can't believe it."

His hand ran down her head, stroking her hair. "She's all yours, Em. Look, she even looks like you."

"She's just a baby," Emily said with a laugh.

Matthew laughed along with her, slipping his finger into the infant's hand. "What are you going to call her?"

Emily had thought long and hard about what kind of name to give her child. She'd known as soon as it was possible that she was going to have a girl and she'd spent plenty of her free time trying to come up with an appropriate name. "Camille," she told Matthew, eyes on her daughter. "Camille Hannah Prentiss."

"It's a good name," he told her softly, meeting her eyes.

"Know what it means?" she asked, turning her eyes back to the newborn sleeping peacefully against her mother's breast. She couldn't believe it. Part of her was afraid that if she took her eyes off of the child for too long, it wouldn't be real.

"I should have known it would have a meaning," Matthew teased. "What does it mean?"

"Perfect Grace," Emily replied quietly. "She's my perfect grace."

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**_According to babynames. com, Camille means 'perfect' and Hannah means 'grace'. So that's where I got the meanings._**


	2. Chapter 1: News of the Worst Kind

_**Okay, after some serious, hard-core consideration, I think I'm going to write this in 2 stories. This one will be post-finale (and subsequently my TV Prompt entry for the Bonus Challenge, though I haven't decided which prompt yet) and then I'll go back and do a series of only post-eps that goes through and solidifies Emily's relationship with Cami and her growing something with Hotch. **_

_**I know exactly which episodes I'm going to use, but if you guys think of something for an episode that will either build Hotch and Em's friendship (the relationship part's going to be in this story), or you can think of a moment where Emily would think of Cami, shoot me a message or let me know in a review, and I'll see what I can do. I make no guarantees though.**_

_**Updates will depend on inspiration. I know what I'm doing for the first 4-6 chapters (depending on what happens in between and how long I can drag it out), but after that, it's a little cloudy.

* * *

**_

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER ONE**

**_News of the Worst Kind_**

Emily couldn't help the smile that stretched over her face as she stepped into her condo. A dark head greeted her, curled up in the corner of the couch, watching some sort of mindless sitcom as she waited. The case had been hellish. All Emily could remember was all of those shoes and they'd reminded her of so many of the pictures she'd seen of the Holocaust. Every time she closed her eyes, all she saw were those shoes…

The dark head looked up, identical in almost every feature. A smile blossomed over her face as she stood, making her way over. "Hey Mom."

But this… this was why she did what she did. She'd never been so glad to have her daughter home in her life. She wrapped her arms tightly around the now-twenty-two year old woman. "Hey Cami."

--

Cami pulled back, looking at her mother carefully. The lines around her eyes and mouth were more pronounced and there was a distinct pinch between her eyebrows. "That bad?"

"Worse," Emily said with a sigh, pulling away to lock up her service weapon. Even though Cami was twenty-two, Emily still locked it up every night. Heck, she locked it up when she was home by herself.

Cami could tell her mother didn't want to discuss it. Which was fine with her. Sometimes she wondered how her mother could do the job she did and not break. She was in her senior year of high school when her mother had received the transfer back to Washington and, eventually, into the BAU and Cami had made the move with her. At first, it had been hard with all of the travelling Emily now did and Cami starting school half way across the country in California, but Cami didn't feel it was abandonment. Something in the BAU had always called to her mother and both of them had discussed it long and hard before Emily had made the official decision to put in for the transfer. Because mother and daughter were extremely close.

Cami hadn't minded staying by herself while Emily was away. If she had a problem with it, she'd go stay with her Uncle Matthew or her grandfather. They were family, and she always made sure to notify her mother if she wasn't going to be at home. They talked as often as they could while she was on the road, but more often than not, Emily cut herself off from her family, partially out of self-preservation, partially out of protection instincts. Cami knew the last thing her mother wanted to expose her to was some of the things she saw on the job.

But now Cami was home for the summer from Stanford. It was a choice she'd made because she hadn't had any extended time with her mother in what felt like forever. In fact, Emily was planning on taking time off after this last case, just to spend some quality time with her daughter and Cami knew it. She had a whole tourist week planned out for them in Washington, then she was banking on being able to drag her mother to a beach somewhere. It was summer, so it didn't really matter where, but Cami wanted the beach, and she wanted her mother to relax.

"Pizza, Chinese or Cami's Cooking?" she asked her mother, moving into the kitchen. It wasn't late, but it wasn't early either. Still, Cami had gone grocery shopping while her mother was away. As a general rule, she preferred to limit her take out intake – she usually ate too much of it at school during finals anyhow – but she didn't know what her mother would feel like.

Emily tried for a smile, but she knew it looked pained and forced. "Surprise me."

"Sure thing," Cami promised watching worriedly as her mother climbed the stairs. She was glad she was here. She was glad her mother was taking the time off. Sometimes her mother worked too hard and she'd said it herself, sometimes, the job could kill you. She just hoped her mother wasn't quite at that point yet.

With a sigh, Cami pulled out pots and pans from their usual cupboards, deciding on what to make, then changing her mind at least twice as she listened to a bath run upstairs. As a general rule, that wasn't a good sign, but Cami hoped that she could cheer her mother up. Finally deciding on some simple chicken pasta, she picked up the phone and dialled an all-too-familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bumps."

"Perfect Grace!"

Cami giggled. Her grandfather was the only one that ever called her that. When she was old enough to understand, she'd asked why he called her that. She'd never forgotten what her name meant. "How are you?"

"I'm fantastic," her grandfather replied. Alan Prentiss adored his girls. All three of them, including his wife. "Where are you?"

"Home," Cami replied nonchalantly. "I figured it was about time I spent my summer away from the California sun."

"Don't want you damaging that pretty face of yours, Gracie," her grandfather agreed. "Where are you staying?"

"Home," Cami repeated. "Mom's taking time off. We're going on a vacation!"

"Vacation?" Alan asked in awe. "How did you do it? Your mother never takes time off!"

"I know," Cami replied. "I think it's time."

"Is she okay?" The concern in Alan's voice was obvious.

"I don't know," Cami said honestly. "But I figure some quality girl time will help."

Alan hummed in agreement, just as there was a knock on the door.

"Gotta go, Bumps. Door. I just wanted to let you know I was home," Cami said, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.

"Okay. Don't be a stranger, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear. I'm not the one getting old."

"Ouch," Alan said with a laugh. "Bye Gracie."

She hung up the phone with one hand as she undid the chain with the other. Then she pulled open the door and leaned against the frame, looking at the nervous-looking dark-skinned man on the other side with questioning eyes. "Can I help you?"

His eyes narrowed. "You're not Emily."

Cami held in a laugh. It wouldn't be the first time she was mistaken for her mother. They looked almost like identical twins and they acted very much like the same person. "No, no I'm not. She's up in the bath. Is it important?"

The man let out a sigh. "Extremely."

The fact that this man had called her mother by her first name spoke to the personal relationship he most likely had with her mother, so Cami had no problem stepping aside to let him in. "I'll go get her. You are…?"

"Derek," he replied. "Derek Morgan."

Cami nodded as she took to the stairs. The name rang a bell, but it took her brain a few moments to realize that Derek Morgan was one of Emily's teammates. Though Emily didn't talk about her, she talked about her colleagues. She knocked quickly, but didn't wait for the 'enter' before she poked her head into the bathroom. "Mom, Derek Morgan's here for you."

"Tell him to go away."

Cami bit her lip as she took in her mother's closed eyes. "I don't think that's a good idea, Mom. He doesn't look…. This looks like something you're going to want to hear."

That caught Emily's attention. Cami was perceptive and her mother knew it. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't ask," Cami answered, "Just came up to get you." She bit her lip. "I'll grab you some clothes?"

"Please," Emily nodded as she shifted, standing and reaching for a towel almost simultaneously. Cami had already turned and headed back for the bedroom, pulling pants and a shirt from her mother's drawers, along with underwear and socks. Then she went back downstairs.

"She'll be down in a sec. Can I get you anything?"

Derek shook his head. "I'm good, thanks."

There was curiosity in his eyes, along with pain, worry… and something akin to grief. She tried for a smile as she held out her hand. "Cami. Camille."

He shook her hand. "Cousin? Sister? Niece?"

She understood the question and chewed her lip. "Um… Daughter," Cami finally replied. "Emily's my mother."

"Your mother?"

Cami only nodded. She'd known her mother hadn't mentioned a thing about her to her BAU colleagues and she wasn't completely surprised. Emily had always kept her sheltered from the things she did in the FBI and largely, Cami thanked her mother for that every day. Sure, Cami was probably more cautious than most twenty-two-year-olds, but her mother had always let her live her life as best she could. She didn't resent Emily for not telling her colleagues about her.

"How old are you?"

"Um... Twenty-two," Cami replied quietly, chewing on her lip. She was thankful when the stairs creaked, notifying her that her mother was on her way down.

"Derek, what are you doing here?"

The African-American man stiffened. Cami could tell he wasn't quite sure what to say, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Finally, Derek blew out a sigh and dove into it. "Hotch was shot."

Cami had only a vague idea who this 'Hotch' was from her mother's rants and stories, but the name held enough gravity with her mother to stumble her step. Cami's brow wrinkled immediately in concern and worry. "Mom?"

"Is he okay?" Emily asked, regaining control.

Cami watched as Derek reached out to her, grasping her elbow. "We don't know. He went into surgery. Neighbours heard a shot and called 9-1-1. No one knows anything. They didn't even tell Dave, the guy listed as his damned ICE."

"In case of emergency," Emily murmured the acronym's translation to her daughter.

Cami nodded. She took a deep breath. "Where do we need to go?"

"No, sweetheart, it's okay. You just got home, you stay here."

There was no way she was staying put, and a look conveyed that to her mother. "You guys probably shouldn't even be driving. You'll break all the speed limits. I'll drive, you guys can freak out in the car, okay?" She was already reaching for her flip-flops and her mother's sneakers by the door. She knew that if things went down wrong, she wanted to be there for her mother. It didn't matter who was in surgery, Cami owed a lot to the people who cared so much for her mother while Cami was a nation away at school. The least she could do was be there for some sort of support.

"Really, Cami, it's fine," Emily said as she slipped on her sneakers. They weren't worn for many things, but she was glad she kept them by the door anyway.

"I don't care if it's fine. I'm coming," Cami replied, her tone of voice brooking that it was final. As if that wasn't enough, she grabbed the keys. "Let's go."


	3. Chapter 2: Impatience

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER TWO**

**_Impatience_**

As a general rule, Emily hated waiting rooms, but she'd long ago come to the conclusion that there was nothing in the world worse than a medical waiting room. At fifteen, she'd waited in one for the doctor to say the two most life-changing words she'd ever experienced. Now, she was going to be waiting on the news on the condition of a man she'd come to respect admire, and above all else, care for deeply.

"Hey," Cami's voice broke through her thoughts. "Don't get all pessimistic on me now. He's going to be fine."

Emily's arm linked through her daughter's surprisingly highly comforted by her presence. Derek was a few steps ahead of them, his stride longer and more intent than hers. The elder Prentiss forced herself to take a deep breath, stamping the panic down with everything in her. Panic would do them absolutely no good and she knew JJ and Garcia would be panicking enough for all of them. It was only superior self-control that slammed her mask into place. Concern and worry replaced the outright fear and panic just as they rounded the corner. Dave paced in that sterile white waiting room Emily hated so much.

"We're still waiting for news," he said as soon as he saw them. His eyes met Emily's instead of Derek's, a testament to how far her relationship with the Unit Chief had come since she was assigned to his unit. "All we know is that he was shot and they took him into surgery."

"We have nothing?" Derek asked.

Dave shook his head. "No one's been out. I have no idea when they took him in."

"JJ? Reid? Garcia?" Emily asked, her voice calm and steady.

"I called them," Dave reassured. "They know."

Emily nodded. "Okay." What else could she say? There was nothing for her to do since everyone had been called. She met Dave's eyes again. "Haley?"

The look he shot her answered that question and really, she already knew calling Haley would do no good. There was nothing they could do, nothing they could tell her, so there was no reason to call her until they could give her some sort of good or bad news. Either way, she was going to be the one to break it to a four-year-old boy.

"I was just about to check with the nurses," Dave offered.

"I'll go."

Emily squeezed her daughter's hand as she looked over at Cami. "It's okay, sweetheart."

Cami shrugged. "It can't hurt. And what else am I going to do, sit here?"

Good God, Emily reflected, Cami couldn't have sounded more like her.

"Hotchner, right?" Cami asked to clarify, squeezing her mother's arm.

"Aaron Hotchner," Dave spoke up, the curiosity in his voice despite their tense situation.

Emily couldn't resist her smile at the way Cami squared her shoulders. Even if she was mostly Emily, in looks and largely in attitude, there were parts of her that were just so _Matthew_, despite their lack of blood relation. Then, Cami was gone, and Emily dropped to one of those uncomfortable plastic chairs.

"You know," Dave said, "If I didn't know better, I'd say she was your twin."

Emily chewed her lip. She didn't want to talk about Cami, even to Dave. She'd illuded to her pregnancy during the Father Silvano case, but it had been Dave who made any and all subsequent conclusions. She was still reluctant to give any details and yet, she knew it would be a distraction, something to talk about that wasn't cases or Hotch's possibly critical condition. And she knew it was her story to tell. Derek wouldn't say anything without her express permission.

"Close," she relented finally. "Daughter."

Dave's eyes widened. He never thought he'd meet the result of that conversation on teenaged pregnancy. "How old?"

"Twenty-two," Emily answered. She knew Dave would be able to make the necessary connections.

The elder profiler nodded slowly. "You never mentioned her."

"I never had a reason to," she replied, rubbing her hands together as she leaned forward in the uncomfortable seat. Hurried footsteps had her looking up as JJ raced into the room, followed by Will who carried Henry and the baby bags that came with him.

"What happened?" the blond asked immediately, eyes trained on Dave. "Is he okay?"

"We don't know," Dave responded, catching her by her upper arms. "We know he's in surgery for a gun shot."

"Well what the hell is that supposed to do to help us? Why isn't anyone trying to find out more information? Why the hell aren't you there badgering the nurses until they _give_ us information?"

Even Will's gentle hand on her shoulder couldn't calm the raging JJ. She and Hotch had their own special relationship and Emily knew the blond held a soft spot for him. Nothing romantic, but she cared about their supervisor. It was the scene Penelope and Reid walked in on, then Cami, looking rather confused. Emily couldn't stop the hope fro curling in her chest as her daughter took a seat beside her. No one else had noticed the brunette's return since they were so focused on JJ's explosion.

"News?" Emily asked.

"Uh, kinda," Cami replied, her face still twisted in confusion. "They're going to send a nurse in to check."

"What's wrong?" Cami's confusion still hadn't dissipated and it worried Emily.

"Kay," Cami said, facing her mother, the way she'd always do when it was something that Cami couldn't understand. "So, I guess one of the nurses got a good look at your Hotch when he came in?"

Emily ignored the possessive. "Okay..."

"Um... 'cause one of them totally thought he was my dad."

Oh. Emily hadn't thought of that. With Cami's colouring identical to her own, it wouldn't be that much of a leap, especially since Emily and Hotch had such similar colouring. It wouldn't be the first time a child was mistaken as biologically theirs instead of sharing DNA with only one of them.

"Do you have a picture of him?"

It seemed like such an odd question considering where they were and what they were doing and Emily scrunched up her nose as she dug out her phone. She had no idea if she had a picture of her unit chief. In her experience, he tended to avoid them at all costs, even when they weren't on the clock. And since New York, they had been spending much more time together than usual. But maybe... aha! She smiled unconsciously as she brought the picture up on the full screen of her phone.

"Is that his son?" Cami asked as she looked over her mother's shoulder.

"Jack," Emily agreed.

Cami took the phone from Emily puzzling over the picture. She tilted her head to the side, then she shot a look at her mother. "Ever been mistaken for the kid's mom?"

Emily nodded, her cheeks heating in embarrassment.

"Explains a lot. I can see why the nurse thought I was related."

As if cued, a nurse bustled their way. "Hotchner?"

That shut JJ's ranting up quick and all eyes turned to the young man. "That's us," Dave spoke up. No one missed the authority in his tone.

Still, the man gave them an apologetic smile. "We're only supposed to talk to family."

Emily looked to her daughter, as the younger woman grasped her hand.

"They are family," Cami spoke up.

The nurse seemed to consider her a minute, then nodded. "Mister Hotchner is still in surgery. From what I could get, he's lucky he's not dead now."

Emily unconsciously tightened her hand around Cami's.

"The good news is… it's reparable. It's going to take time and he's going to have to have a hard-core _yearning _to stay alive," the nurse continued.

"There's bad news?" Emily was glad Cami's voice was calm and steady. Despite her previous clamping down on her emotions, she doubted she would be as steady.

The nurse sighed. "We've had bad luck with blood donors and we're running low on blood."

"Where do I sign up," Dave said immediately.

"Me too," Morgan agreed.

Penelope was already rolling up her sleeve, exposing her arm, JJ shedding her jacket. The nurse seemed absolutely floored by the way the team rallied around each other.

"Um… we're going to need to do a few tests, see if any of you are compatible."

Emily smiled inwardly as Cami sat back. Apparently, she'd noticed how easily Dave took charge and she seemed happy enough to be out of the spotlight role.

"Then let's get you set up," the nurse said, waving them back.


	4. Chapter 3: Through Her Eyes

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER THREE**

**_Through Her Eyes_**

Cami had always leaned on her mother and she'd always been aware that her mother had leaned on her. This was one of those times where Emily leaned heavily on her daughter's inherited strength. As they sat in the waiting room waiting for both news on Agent Hotchner and on the blood tests of the family of agents sitting in a loose group around the waiting room. She'd been introduced to each of them in turn and now she sat, her mother pressed closer to her side, absorbing that strength.

Over the four years Emily had been with the BAU, Cami had been privy to it all. Cases, coworkers, high points low points... Nothing was left out of the conversation between mother and daughter. As they waited, Cami reflected on the little family surrounding her. For as a child raised by a single, teenaged mother and a man that wasn't related by blood but was the closest thing she knew to a dad, Cami was no stranger to the concept of family being whatever you could make of it.

The youngest Prentiss was very much aware that no one in the room – well, with the exception of Agent Rossi and Detective LaMontagne – really trusted Emily when she'd started. They'd done it on principle, seeing her as an outsider to their close knit team.

Jennifer Jareau and Penelope Garcia, the two blonds in the group as Cami had learned, took to Emily first, female solidarity and all that. Cami had heard about her adventures with Brad and knew how very important friends were to her mother. Though Emily had divulged little of her pre-Cami childhood, something told Cami that it wasn't all that filled with friendships. Now, those women were Emily's closest girlfriends, women Emily could probably relate to better than the daughter that was half her age. Cami was thankful there were women closer to home that could support Emily when things got tough, even if Prentiss women didn't show weakness.

The next buddy milestone in Emily's career had been the trust of Derek Morgan. He'd taken longer, but Cami had heard about the two of them bonding over one of Emily's failed dates and Kurt Vonnegut and she'd been glad Emily had another new friend. Now, Cami knew that in many ways, Agent Morgan was Emily's best friend. Even through the exorcism fiasco, at the end of the day, Agent Morgan always had her mother's back. He would never know how thankful Cami was for that.

Dr Spencer Reid had been a post-traumatic drug abuser and when Jason Gideon had turned her mother's concern away, Cami had been the one Emily confided her concerns about the good doctor to. Cami had been the one to encourage Emily not to back away, that maybe there was something deeper at work there that no one had seen or had really taken the time to look for. It had been quite the payoff to hear that they were on better terms and she'd flat out laughed when Emily admitted to mothering the young genius.

David Rossi was the late comer and Emily had railed against him at first, detailing to Cami the way he was so independent about working that it actually undermined the cohesiveness of the team. However, after his case, the case that haunted him, Emily's tone had started to soften when it came to Agent Rossi, Cami had vaguely thought, more than once, that it was affection in her mother's voice and knew that Emily put in some late nights at the office just to keep the older man company.

Aaron Hotchner had always been the enigma. He was the stoic hardass boss, the invincible one. Emily rarely spoke about him. Or, at least, that was how things had started. New York changed things and Cami had known that simply by the way he'd weasel his way into more and more conversations. Then, it became more of a regular occurrence as Emily spent more and more time with the man. Cami had been the first one Emily confided in about the demise of the man's marriage and even Cami's heart had broken as Emily talked about how lonely Hotch was. It had been a blessing in disguise really, because as time went on, Cami could hear the way her mother's voice changed as she talked about the man. Eventually, Cami found herself wondering if her mother felt something other than just genuinely friendly affection. The picture on Emily's phone really only strengthened the idea in her mind.

Which explained the anxiousness Cami could feel almost radiating off of the woman beside her. God, she wished the doctor would come out and give them an answer. This was killing them. They'd been sitting there for hours and even Agent Jareau's son Henry had been able to sense the incredible tension.

"Agents?"

Seven heads looked up at the same nurse who had gotten the news of Hotch's condition. Cami offered as much of a smile at the nervous-looking man as she could muster herself.

The man let out a sigh. "I'm afraid we don't have a match."

"What do you mean we don't have a match?" Agent Rossi roared. "_Find _a match, damn it!"

"How can you not have a match out of six people?" Agent Morgan added to Agent Rossi's uproar.

"One of us _has_ to be a match," Garcia spoke up, sounding absolutely desperate.

Cami squeezed her mother's arm. "What does it mean?"

Her voice cut through the din. How, even she wasn't quite sure, but the poor man looked absolutely relieved to get a question he could actually answer. "Unfortunately, the bullet did catch an artery and they're having a little bit of problem taking care of it. If we don't get any complications we'll be fine."

"And if there are complications?" Cami asked, the only one able to put together any form of calm sentence.

"It could be risky."

"Oh God," Agent Jareau gasped.

"You mean... " Garcia added. No one wanted to say what even the nurse seemed hesitant to put into words.

Cami looked around at the dejected faces of people she'd just met, but nothing hit her in the gut as hard as her mother's absolutely stricken eyes. She could tell Emily was trying to keep it in, trying to hold back everything that was rushing through her system, but Cami knew better. She knew her mother, and whoever the man was in the operating room fighting for his life, her mother cared about, completely and deeply. So she cleared her throat, catching the doctor's attention. "What about me?"

The doctor looked around at the surprised faces. This couldn't be easy for them. He'd had plenty of agents come through the hospital and he had a pretty solid idea of how close teams became. "Come on back and we can have you tested."

Cami didn't look back, didn't wait for her mother's word, just followed the doctor. She was twenty-two after all, she didn't need her mother's permission to do anything.

The relief on the nurse's face seemed absolutely genuine as she followed him away from her mother, away from the team and hopefully somewhere that would ease their anxieties.


	5. Chapter 4: The Lightbulb Went 'Click'

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**_The Light Bulb Went 'Click'_  
**

God, she wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready for Hotch to be on death's doorstep. Superman could outrun bullets, why hadn't Hotch? She rolled her eyes at herself. Because Hotch wasn't Superman. They had a bad tendency of forgetting that little tidbit. Underneath that invincible suit, he was just a man, a man that hurt, and that got lonely. And, apparently, got shot. But it didn't make it any easier to swallow the fact that he was currently in another room of the hospital fighting for his life.

Emily had never been more thankful for Cami in her life. Cami, a woman who had hated Hotch in the beginning because he had been so completely against her mother without ever actually giving her a chance to prove herself, had just offered up her arm to donate blood to that same man. It made her heart warm in ways that were totally necessary considering the outcome she could be seriously facing. She and Matthew had raised Cami well and raised her right if she was willing to do something for a man she'd never met.

She didn't know how much time had passed before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Cami was there, looking a little tired, and a little worse for wear. She had a cotton ball on her arm, covered by surgical tape to hold it in place. There was no way Emily could stop the flood of hope from reaching her eyes.

"I'm a match," she said quietly, just for her mother to hear. "They took my blood. He'll be fine."

She sagged against the back of the seat in relief, then reached out for her daughter's hand. "Thank you, Gracie."

Cami's mouth tilted in that affectionate way it did at her nickname. "No thanks necessary," she said honestly. "He's important to you, so he's important to me."

The words struck a chord in Emily. Of course, she was aware that Hotch was important to her. Very important to her. For the last little while he'd been in serious competition with Derek for the title of 'best friend'. But there was something different about Hotch that kept him in second place and Emily had never been able to put her finger on it. She heard Cami sigh as the younger Prentiss took a seat.

"You're just figuring it out now, huh?" she asked quietly.

Emily tilted her head to the side, her question obvious.

Cami smiled. "Come on. Let's tell everyone the news, then we're going to get something to eat. I'm starving."

And, after they relayed the good news of Cami's blood match, both Prentiss women wandered away, Emily more reluctantly than her daughter, from the rest of the little BAU family.

"He'll be in surgery for a while yet, Mom. We'll be back long before he's even out of surgery, let alone conscious," Cami reassured.

Emily's lips managed to twist in a smile. "Remind me again which one of us is the mind reader?"

"Would that be because you're the parent or the supposed profiler?" Cami asked saucily in reply.

Emily graced her daughter with a genuine smile. Cami was doing her best to cheer her up, to try and keep her focused on something other than Hotch's surgery. She was being Cami and it was a true comfort. "When was the last time you called your dad?"

Cami shrugged. "Before I came here. And two things, before you lecture me, one, you're not off the hook yet, and two, I wanted a bit to settle in and now we're at the hospital. He'll call soon and leave me this long worried message and I'll have to explain that one of Mom's coworkers was a little more important."

"Cami, you have to call Matt." Matthew was probably the only person who could rival her in worrying about the twenty-two-year-old currently keeping pace with her.

"I know, Mom!" Cami said with a little bit of a laugh.

Emily shook her head, her mind drifting slightly. Matthew had been pretty torn up at John's death and even Emily had felt something slip away from her. Cami had never known her biological father, and part of Emily felt terrible that she'd never really given Cami the chance to find him or get to know him. Sure, she had the complete ability if she felt like it, but they'd never really talked about John until he'd died and Emily had broken the news to her daughter. Beyond that, Cami's relationship with Matthew was the only paternal one she had with maybe the exception of Emily's own father.

Both Prentiss women made their way through the halls of the hospital, Emily subconsciously following Cami's lead. Emily, honestly, still felt a bit catatonic about the entire experience, the majority of her hospital memories to draw on being negative ones and all. It was hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and even with Cami's reassurance, a big part of Emily still wondered if Hotch really was going to make it up off of that table.

After they'd both bought their sustenance, Emily a coffee, Cami a coffee and a muffin, both women found a small table in a corner. Unobtrusive, out of the way, perfect. Cami very deliberately set the muffin down in the center of the table.

They sat in silence for a moment, drinking coffee, picking at the muffin, before Cami spoke, "You're in love with him, Mom."

Emily's head shot up, meeting her daughter's eyes. "What?"

"Hotch. The guy who's in surgery? You're in love with him."

"You're crazy."

"I'm right," Cami argued. "Come on, Mom, give me at least a little bit of credit."

"He and I are close, Cami, that's it," Emily contradicted, her fingers tapping on the Styrofoam cup that held her coffee. "We're friends."

Cami rolled her eyes. "I know you, Mom. And if I can see it, you damned well better believe your team can see it. Denial isn't pretty on anyone."

Emily looked away, taking in the people walking around the cafeteria. There was a weathered and exhausted looking woman, probably here to see an ailing husband. A man sat twisting his wedding ring and Emily figured he could be there for a birth, or a loved one, probably his wife. The anxious tapping of his foot didn't really give her a clue either way. A family sat morosely in another corner, and Emily's heart clenched. Definitely for a loved one, and it didn't look like happy news.

"Hey, Mom."

Emily turned back to Cami. "I'm not in love with him."

"No? That's why you basically shut down when you heard he'd been shot?"

This time, Emily winced at it being said out loud. "Cami…"

"Or what about the look of panic on your face when you heard there may not be enough blood for him to make it through the surgery and no one was a match?"

"Camille…"

Usually her full name slowed her down. Not this time. "Or what about your relief when we found out _I_ was a match and he'd probably make it through the surgery okay? You can't be that blind, Mom, or that stupid."

"Camille Hannah Prentiss, that is enough!" Emily hissed.

Cami sighed and sat back, her fingers drumming on the table. "Why is it enough?" she asked. "You work with people who have spent their whole lives studying behaviour. You have got to be _kidding_ me or deluding yourself if you think that _they_ haven't noticed it."

Emily knew that there was no one in the world she trusted more than she did Cami. She also knew that Cami only had the best of her mother at heart. Cami loved her, there was no doubt about that, and Cami knew her. Knew her better than Hotch, than Derek, than even Penelope and JJ. Cami was her sole confidante.

"I can't," she whispered. "I can't be in love with him."

She couldn't. It was that easy. As friends, there were no hidden agendas, no threats. He was safe as a friend. She didn't have to deal with his divorce, she didn't have to deal with the Bureau… she didn't have to deal with sexual tension or the need for comfort and affection beyond what they had now. She didn't have to worry about domestic squabbles coming into the office or any sort of damage happening in their happy little family if things broke up. He needed to stay a friend.

"Mom don't. Please don't do this to yourself," Cami begged. "Don't look for excuses."

"They're not excuses, Cami. They're reasons."

"But you don't deny you have feelings for the man. Excellent."

Emily found her irritation rising at her daughter's own annoyance. "Damnit, Cami, you're missing every point here!"

"No. The only thing I see is a woman who is too busy protecting herself to go out on a limb for what she feels. And seriously, Mom, I'm not surprised. You've been talking about him, defending him… everything but jumping him."

"Camille!"

Cami rolled her eyes. "I'm not a prude, Mom, I'm way past the age of puberty, okay? And I go to college. Look... I just... I want to see you happy and by the look on your face when Agent Morgan told you Agent Hotchner had been shot... well, let's just say my heart broke."

Emily wouldn't meet Cami's gaze, even when her daughter reached out and rested a hand on her arm. "I _can't_ Gracie."

"You're miserable here," Cami replied, just as soft as Emily's words had been. "Whether you realized it before now or not, that man holds your whole world in his hands. Well, most of it."

Emily managed a tight smile, well aware that Cami was withholding judgment until she could actually meet the man. In many ways Cami was Emily's whole world. But even Emily had to admit that Hotch was weaselling his way further and further into her life and she wasn't totally sure either one of them had realized it. Now that she'd had the time to go back and think about it, she realized that they spent a healthy portion of their spare time, a precious commodity in itself, with each other.

"Just..." Cami began, breaking into her mother's thoughts. "Just think about it, okay?"

Emily managed a tight smile. She had a feeling that now that she'd talked about it with her daughter, there was little else she'd be thinking about during Hotch's recovery. That was, if he ever made it out of the operating room.


	6. Chapter 5: Not Out of the Woods Yet

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

_**CHAPTER FIVE**_

_**Not Out of the Woods Yet**_

Emily and Cami returned to the waiting room soon after, Emily even more subdued with the new revelations, only to find the team crowded around another orderly. This one was a woman, and looked a little worse for wear. Emily felt her breath catch at the smear of red on her throat. There was a really good chance that was Hotch's blood there.

"Good news," Penelope said as the first one to spot them both. She reached out and grasped Emily's arm. "He's out of surgery."

Emily felt her chest swell with happiness, but managed to withhold her tears. "How is he?"

"Nowhere near out of the woods," the woman replied. "But he made it through surgery which is a good start. Are you family?"

Emily nodded. Cami had already created the ruse, it made sense to go with it for the time being. She stepped away with the nurse as she indicated, though Emily never really understood this part. It wasn't as if she was going to keep whatever the woman said to her a secret.

"The doctor should be out to speak with you shortly about the specifics, but your husband lost a lot of blood. The consensus is that we keep him in a drug-induced coma for a few days, to make sure that his body responds to the antibiotics, the blood transfusions and the surgery as a whole. You'll be able to visit him."

Emily could only nod again, not fully trusting her voice to come out as strong and collected as she wanted it to be. "Thank you," she managed.

The nurse squeezed her arm, then walked away.

Emily returned back to her colleagues, clearing her throat. "Um… she didn't tell me much. He pulled through the surgery and the hospital wants to keep him in a drug-induced coma for a bit to make sure he's actually healing…"

She was going to lose it. There was no question. Right there, in front of the team, she was going to freaking lose it. Her nails dug into her palm with the stress of keeping the tearing sobs at bay.

"Can we visit?" Penelope asked, not bothering to follow Emily's stoic lead.

Emily nodded. "He'll be in a coma, but the nurse said visiting was okay." She saw Dave exchange a look with Derek. Then he turned back to her.

"As soon as the doctor gets out here with more news, you go on back and see him, okay?" he said and she knew it wasn't the question he'd worded it as.

She didn't argue. She didn't want to argue and by the look on Dave's face it wouldn't have done her much good anyway. Her stomach churned because of her conversation with Cami and the automatic reactions of the team. Had they known about it? Why hadn't anyone said anything? Pointed it out to her? Something! Sure, it wasn't the first time she'd been worried about him, but this time he'd been freaking shot! How else was she supposed to react? And it wasn't her fault her compartmentalizing walls were shot because of the case they'd just completed. Good Lord, she really was going to lose it.

She cleared her throat, grasping at straws for something else. Then, it came to her. "Who shot him?"

The team looked surprised at the question and it struck Emily that maybe no one had considered that part of it.

"How could we not think of that?" JJ murmured, more to herself. "How are we going to find the guy?"

"It's a local jurisdiction," Derek lamented. "It's not our call."

"He's Hotch," Penelope argued. "The Bureau will let us play."

Dave sighed. "It's the locals, not the Bureau that we have to worry about."

"I don't care." They all swung their heads to face Emily at her quiet words. "I don't care about the locals, I don't care about protocol. He's one of us and we fight for our own. Screw protocol. Screw whether we're working this officially or not. He's fighting for his God damned life and that bastard isn't going to get away with this."

She knew she said it with enough conviction to scare the team. They were all looking at her a little shell shocked. She was the strong one, the match to Hotch in that regard, but apparently even Emily's mask could break. Plus, hadn't that been what Hotch had said when Penelope had been shot? Hadn't he been convinced that nothing mattered more than finding out who had put one of his people that close to death? They were a family, a family with the added bonus of having the training to work these cases.

"Aaron Hotchner?"

They all turned, facing the doctor that had come up behind them. The man tried to smile. "I operated on Agent Hotchner. The bullet caught his aorta and that's where the bleeding came from. Luckily for us, it was a through and through so we didn't have to find the bullet. As I'm sure Nurse Marquese told you, we're keeping in him a coma until we're sure everything's going to be fine. The aorta can be tricky."

"What does that mean?" Cami asked, stepping up beside her mother.

"It means that with the proper care and some careful monitoring, he'll be fine. It's going to take time and lots of recovery, but there's even the chance he could go back to work. He's lucky."

Emily wasn't sure lucky was the correct word for it, but she nodded anyway. "Thank you," she said quietly.

The doctor graced her with a sympathetic smile. "He's out, but we can let one person into see him." His eyes stayed fixed on Emily the whole time.

But it took a nudge of Cami's shoulder to get her moving. She forced herself to focus on her breathing as she followed the doctor through the maze of hallways. He turned to her when they were at his door.

"He's stable, ma'am, and he's alive. He can hear you if you talk to him."

"Thank you," she said again, pushing open the door with shaking hands. As her eyes landed on him, she realized she probably should have taken an extra minute to absorb the fact that he'd been shot. He didn't look like Hotch. Tubes were everywhere, and though she was thankful it seemed like he could breathe on his own, it was still a lot to take in. She managed to pull the chair to his bedside before collapsing into it, wrapping both of her hands around his.

Then, and only then, did she really lose it.

* * *

Dream worlds, Hotch decided, were odd places. Colours were more vibrant here, things always a little foggy around the edges. But it was a happy place, devoid of the torture and grief he saw on a regular basis. He liked it here. He'd just been settling in for a long and, he knew, well deserved rest, when something permeated through the haze of happiness.

Someone was crying.

He'd wondered what the odd, weighted feeling on his hand had been, and now he knew. There was someone there with her. But he couldn't see anyone for miles around him. There was no one in this world with him, so where was the crying coming from? He listened closely, not that it took much effort. He'd heard that crying before, those gut wrenching sobs. He fought against the dream world's fog for the answer, pushing back in his brain…

Emily!

Emily was crying!

He pushed himself upright, or, at least, he tried to. Something held him down. He couldn't move. But he needed to get to her! He needed to understand why she was crying! Emily didn't cry without provocation, that was one thing he'd learned about his colleague in the last few years. Well, one of the things. He'd learned a lot more about her than just that.

But why was Emily crying?

The weight lifted from him and he got up. He was going to find out where she was and then he was going to figure out why she was crying. He sighed as he set off through the meadows of the dream land. The faster he found her, the faster he could comfort her and stop her crying. He didn't like seeing her cry and it was driving him crazy that he could hear it, but he couldn't find her.

He saw someone in the distance and picked up his pace. It took him a few steps before he realized it wasn't a woman – and his heart dropped a little at the thought that he was still looking for Emily – but a man, a man wearing a sweatshirt. The hood was up and though something told him that approaching the man was a bad idea, he had too much of his brain focused on finding Emily.

"Excuse me?"

He froze when the man turned around, a mask on his face and cold but triumphant eyes. He noticed the gun and his eyes widened. The gun came up, aimed right at him.

"You should have taken the deal."


	7. Chapter 6: I Need You to Fight, Okay?

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER SIX**

**_I Need You to Fight, Okay?_**

To Emily, time became an irrelevant measurement. She wasn't sure how long she cried, how long she'd been sitting beside his prone, unresponsive body, sobbing. What she did know was that it had been cathartic. It didn't erase the things in her mind, but it felt better to release the stress of the unknown. He wasn't out of the woods, because of the surgery and recuperation and because they had yet to pinpoint, let alone find, the shooter, but she felt better knowing that if he had something to fight for, he'd be back.

And she knew he had so much to fight for. He may have lost his wife over a year ago, but he had his own version of family. He'd handpicked most of his BAU team and they looked up to him, he knew that. He had to know that. Reid still looked at him as a sort of father figure, Dave too, but Hotch was the stability in his life since Gideon had left. And Derek more than respected him. Emily wasn't sure how Derek would react if Hotch didn't come out of this, but she did know it wouldn't be good.

Hotch was, in the work sphere, Dave's other half. Hotch was the one that was the rationality to Dave's more traditional approaches to profiling and it had been Hotch that had asked them all to give Dave a chance to get used to the way things were run. Dave had been used to a different kind of BAU and Emily had noticed how much of the stress of breaking Dave in that Hotch had taken on his shoulders.

Hotch and Penelope had their disagreements, that was no secret. There were times he forgot that she wasn't a profiler, that she dug into people's lives electronically, not behaviourally. She didn't like dissecting every tidbit and secret about people. She looked up concrete, factual information and let the team interpret it as they thought was correct. But Emily also knew that Hotch appreciated everything she did more than the blond probably really realized. Hotch wasn't immune to how important Penelope was to what they did and he wasn't blind to how much she, as a person, made them a better team. She was their bright spot. Emily had found herself wondering a time or two if Penelope realized just how many times she'd managed to crack a case for them.

But no one would take Hotch's inability to recover like JJ would. There was a bond between JJ and Hotch, one that Emily had seen and Hotch had alluded to once or twice. JJ was like his little sister, a woman who he recognized was strong in her own right, but every once in a while needed that extra bit of encouragement. And Emily knew they worked closer than the rest of the team did. They had to, as supervisor and communications coordinator. And Emily knew JJ saw Hotch in the same light.

They all did, there was no doubt about that. Superman was their rock, the glue that often times Emily felt really held the team together. He was invincible and he was all-knowing. There were very few things that managed to escape his ever-present eye, even when he was in his office and the rest of them were in the conference room. He just seemed to have a knack.

Which was why it was so incredibly painful to see him just lying there, prone, tubes attached to him, pumping him full of the drugs that would keep him dead to the world and the nourishment he'd need to heal.

Emily took a deep breath.

"Aaron, it's Emily..."

* * *

God, even in Dream World it hurt like hell to be shot.

And apparently Dream World wasn't immune to nightmares either.

But it had helped. He was now aware that he was in Dream World to begin with, that things around him weren't real. He'd been pretty sure of it before, but now, he was definitely positive. It made him feel a little bit better, knowing that Emily was probably okay. He hadn't heard crying when he'd woken from being shot for the second time, but he wasn't sure how long he'd been out either. How long had she cried?

The knowledge and memory of what happened had him logically deducing a few things: one, he was most definitely in a hospital. Well, his body was. His brain still seemed to be in some happy meadow with purple bunnies. And try as he might, those damn bunnies wouldn't turn black, brown or white, no matter how hard he wished it. Apparently Dream World had its own set of rules.

Two, he would have gone through some sort of surgery. It pained him to think of his team going through the same thing they had following Garcia's shooting. He wasn't supposed to get short. Then again, he shouldn't have to clear his apartment upon coming home from the worst case he'd faced in a long time. Well, worst non-personally affecting case, anyway. They'd all suffered in Canada, each of them reacting violently to the things they saw.

Three, he wasn't dead. He had a good gut feeling that he wouldn't be able to hear Emily if he was dead, and he'd probably be having more of an out of body experience than he was now. He doubted wherever he was meant to go after death had purple bunnies in it. That just didn't seem the logical style. Which meant one very important thing:

He could still fight.

And upon waking up, he'd decided he had too much to fight for. Spencer still needed a father figure. Dave still needed to be reigned in from time to time. Derek still needed a mentor, someone to be an example on leading a team because one day – and Hotch had no doubt it would be one day soon – Derek would be leaving to run his own team. JJ needed the stability, a person who knew the job and knew the kind of things that would go through her mind looking at picture after picture of dead women, more often than not. Jack was a no-brainer and one of his top two reasons to fight to see him again.

The other.... Emily... well, if he was honest, he wasn't quite sure what Emily needed. He knew she needed his friendship. That was something they'd proven time and time again, but he needed hers just as badly. Since New York, since they'd grown closer, he could always rely on her to crack a joke, make a sarcastic observation or do something endlessly sweet to remind him that there were good, happy things in the world. He didn't think she even realized how much he'd come to rely on her uncanny ability to just be normal no matter what they saw, no matter what they had to do.

She'd be broken by his death, that much he was sure of. She'd probably even be broken if he had to stay in a coma for the rest of his life. Not to mention that he didn't really have time to be in a coma. He needed to get out of Dream World. He needed to warn Derek that Foyet was back. He needed to protect Emily.

His brow wrinkled. Why did he need to protect Emily? She's proven time and time again that she was more than capable of taking care of herself and she actually enjoyed pointing it out to him more often than not. She enjoyed bragging when she managed to do something better than he could and she took great pride in being able to teach him anything new. Emily didn't need protection, yet he wanted to wrap her in his arms and take her away from the George Foyet's of the world.

It wasn't the first time the protective instinct had reared it's ugly head when it came to Emily, but it was the first time he'd given it more than a passing thought. Since he figured there was a good reason he hadn't woken up yet, he'd plopped himself down in the middle of the meadow, only a few feet from where he'd woken. Foyet was gone, not a trace of him in sight, and Hotch had vaguely wondered if this Dream World brought his nightmares to life too.

_"Aaron."_

There was her voice again, and he perked up without realizing it, straining to try and figure out where it was coming from.

_"It's Emily."_

Well he knew that. Okay, he couldn't pinpoint a place where she was coming from so maybe... Maybe she wasn't here. God, it was still definitely difficult to get over the surreal nature of a Dream World.

She sniffled. _"The doctors said you could hear me if I talked to you but... I can't say I know what I'm supposed to talk about."_

He didn't care what she wanted to talk about. It was just good to hear her voice. It was always good to hear her voice.

_"I don't want to bog you down with the team. We're... we're holding in there. Apparently you were on the verge of losing too much blood and they couldn't find any for you... We fixed that problem though, and yet..."_

Her voice was choking up and he knew that meant tears. His eyes fluttered closed, his head tilting forward to rest on his bent knees. This was _killing _him. She wasn't supposed to be in this much pain. He was alive, wasn't he?

_"Um... they said you were going to make it, if your body could heal just a little bit more. They want to keep you in a coma for a few days, just as an extra precaution, but the doctor said that eventually, you could probably even return to the Bureau. But it's going to take some time. You're not going to be able to go back tomorrow and I doubt any of us are prepared to make the same mistake letting you back into the field like we did after New York. And let's face it, Dave has more pull than you do."_

He wished she could see him laughing. He was glad she was trying to be normal, even though he could hear the tears in her voice,

_"God, Aaron, you scared us all to death. You're not supposed to be the one that gets shot, one of us is! That way you can tell us everything is going to be okay! We're not holding up so good out here."_

He heard her take a deep, shuddering breath.

_"I'm not doing so good out here. I need you to wake up when they stop pumping so much of the narcotics through your system because I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with myself if you don't wake up and if you don't recover. I know you're already going to fight because you have a son to get back to, but just in case, I need you to fight okay? If Jack's not enough, then for me. Because I need you in my life and I didn't realize how much until I thought you were gone."_

As if he didn't already have enough incentive.

* * *

**_So, as you can see, I finally decided what prompt I want to use for this Finale Fix. I kept puzzling and puzzling over it and that's why I didn't go and put it up or anything. I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it and how many prompts it would fit. Having said that, as I'm sure you can see, the "Surprise" is two-fold. One is that Hotch got shot, and I'm not 'fixing' it so much as making sure he stays alive. The other, of course, is Cami. _**

_**Now, before you all look at me funny, I have it on good authority that there is a post-surgery cocktail of glorious drugs that literally makes you see purple bunnies. As in, I've had friends who have been on it. I can't remember what it's made out of and really, they probably wouldn't use it for a gunshot victim (my friends have all gone in for surgery for CP) but I thought it was a hilarious analogy considering I've kind of sent Hotch into this surreal sci-fi dream universe. **_

_**Not quite the Emily introspection I was aiming for, but the poor woman had to be told she was in love with the man, I figure we can give her a little while until she says it. Maybe not when he's in a drug-induced coma and just sleeping. **_

_**Actually, I kind of like that idea...**_


	8. Chapter 7: When He Wakes

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

**_When He Wakes_  
**

When his eye fluttered open, he expected to see Emily. And, he liked to think, logically so. He'd spent three days in this coma – she'd explained everything to him on the second day, and the only reason he knew days had passed was because she seemed to keep him completely informed – and she'd visited every day. It was only natural that when he woke he'd find her at his bedside. She was his first thought in waking up, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, thank God you're awake!"

It was a female voice, but not Emily's. "JJ?"

"Hey." Her blond head came into his blurry vision. "How are you feeling?"

They all hated to be asked that question, he knew that, but he knew she was just concerned. And probably in charge of relaying things to everyone else as soon as she got the chance. "Worse for wear," he replied.

She smiled slightly and his lip quirked up in response. That was his often non-existent sense of humour. "Pain?"

"No," he replied, groggily. He was telling the truth and it was probably the reason why he was so groggy. He swallowed, debating with himself what to ask and how to ask it. Finally, he just sighed as best he could. "Emily?"

The awareness flitted across JJ's face, but to her credit, she didn't ask questions, make a comment or anything else. "Hopefully at home. She's been here every day with you."

"I could hear her," he said, closing his eyes again.

"Doctors said you'd be able to hear when we talked to you," JJ nodded. "We sent her home to get some rest."

If JJ read anything into him asking the question, she didn't bring it up. For that, he was thankful for her tact. Well, he was always thankful for her tact, but in this situation especially. "What happened?"

"You tell us," a new voice answered from the doorway. Dave. "The only information we got was that you'd been shot."

He fought against the drugs keeping him numb to pain, trying to remember like he had in his coma. "Foyet," he said finally. Then, as if saying the word made it more real, he started to feel the concern, worry and panic settle in. "Where's Morgan?"

"With Emily," Dave replied.

JJ was already pulling out her phone. They had to make sure Morgan knew Foyet was back in DC.

"They can't be together. Separate them, Dave."

"Whoa, hold on a second and breathe. He was the only one besides Cami she agreed to let stay with her and we wanted to make sure there was someone there," JJ said, reaching out for his hand. "Everything's fine."

He certainly didn't feel that way. He didn't want Foyet getting to any of his team and Morgan was already a target. He couldn't stop the part of him that was borderline paranoid about Emily from panicking at the idea of Target Morgan being in the same place as Innocent Emily. His blurry vision settled on Dave. The elder profiler nodded, understanding. Thank God for Dave. He'd make sure Emily and Morgan were safe, of that, Hotch had absolutely no doubt. He may have started off rocky, but he was part of their family now. And if anyone knew how important it was for family to protect family, it was David Rossi.

"It's done, Hotch," Dave assured him.

Hotch missed the way JJ rolled her eyes at that, too busy being terribly relieved at the fact that he had one of his most trusted friend's assurance that both Emily and Morgan would be alright. The blond left, phone in hand, ready to make the necessary calls to the team to assure them that he was indeed okay and now awake. Dave took the seat she vacated, leaning his elbows on his knees in a way Hotch recognized.

"What is it?" he asked. It was probably a better idea to get all of this out in the open now. He had no idea what had gone on while he was out of it and though Emily had kept him appraised on everyone else, there had been nothing beyond her first confession of needing him to fight.

"We need to talk," Dave said slowly, carefully.

Hotch let his eyes fall closed for a moment, summoning every bit of concentration he had left. Dave wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't a necessity. "About what?"

"Emily."

That shot his eyes open again. "You told me she was okay."

"She is," Dave promised. He paused for a moment. "Aaron, what's going on between the two of you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hotch asked, narrowing his eyes.

Dave knew he had to choose his words carefully. He didn't want to set Hotch off, but he was looking at a situation that had the potential of dire consequences. He'd suspected for a while that things between Hotch and Emily weren't as platonic as most would believe, as they would lead others to believe. Or, at least, Emily certainly felt strongly for the man currently relegated to a hospital bed. Her reaction though this entire situation shouted, screamed, of more intense feelings.

"She's been a mess, Aaron. We've been rotating sitting with her. Cami says she's been having nightmares, can't sleep... She spends all of her time here and she's supposed to be on vacation. So I repeat, what is going on between the two of you?"

Hotch had no idea Emily had been that worried. Beyond the obvious tears he'd heard in the first couple of days, she'd just been quiet. He hadn't thought anything was out of the ordinary about that. Well, other than the fact that she was rarely quiet, but he'd been unconscious at the time and really, it was difficult to have a one-sided conversation. "Nothing."

"Liar," Dave said immediately. "There's more than 'nothing' going on between you, Hotch. Everyone knows it now."

Now? Hotch wrinkled his brow. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, the tiredness seeping into his voice. He was, after all, still pumped up on narcotics.

"I'm talking about Emily, Aaron. I'm talking about the feelings between you and you can't tell me you're just friends. There's something more there."

"You're talking in riddles," Hotch accused, his eyes falling closed again.

Dave leaned forward. "She was devastated when the doctors said they may not have enough blood to save your life. She was broken when they couldn't find a match in the team. And when Cami offered her arm, and was a match, the relief in her body was so palpable. If you can't see how in love with you she is, then you're blind, Hotch. Completely and utterly blind."

* * *

Cami had been talking with Derek Morgan for an hour when his phone rang. Emily had finally dropped off to sleep and Cami was more than glad that her mother had finally exhausted herself enough to do so. She'd been having nightmares about the shooting for days and even though Cami was around, sleeping right next door, a different team member – minus Agent Jareau and TA Garcia – had been rotating through staying over. Part of Cami felt it was unnecessary, but now that she'd been talking to Agent Morgan – Derek, the name he insisted she call him – she understood that they were just worried. Her mother was well-loved here, there was no doubt about that, and Cami was willing to humour them.

"Hey JJ."

Cami sat up almost immediately. Agent Jareau and Agent Rossi were on rotation at the hospital, waiting to hear if Agent Hotchner would wake. By the look on Derek's face that's exactly the news Agent Jareau had passed on. A smile blossomed over the handsome man's face as he hung up the phone. "He's awake."

Cami was already half way to the stairs yelling over her shoulder, "I'll wake Mom."


	9. Chapter 8: Uneven Keel

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

_**Uneven Keel**_

PROMPT: Weight of the World (Buffy)

She hadn't been by the hospital.

Well, that wasn't totally true. She'd been by, she'd just kept her visiting hours to those times when he was asleep. Emily had her reasons, not the least of which was her own perceived emotional instability. Hotch's shooting had opened doors Emily had previously and consciously as well as subconsciously avoided like the plague. No, it was easy for her to admit she'd been feeling something deeper, something potentially volatile and dangers. The last thing she wanted was to dump all of this emotion on him right as he was recovering from being shot.

She'd been keeping up to date on his condition through doctors and a sympathetic Dave, determined to keep her distance despite Dave telling her that Hotch asked about her every time he woke. She'd made Dave swear not to speak a word to Hotch that she'd been visiting. Now, she and Cami were cooking in the kitchen. Matthew was coming for dinner, Cami having made all the arrangements.

"I don't get it, that's all," Cami said, stirring the pasta. "I don't understand how on earth you can be here at home when Agent Hotchner was just released and is probably at home by himself."

Dave had told Emily that morning that Hotch was being released and was set to do the rest of his recovery at home. She'd been able to tell by the tone of Dave's voice that she was almost expected to offer her help, but she'd refrained from doing so.

"Its not for you to understand, Cami," Emily replied quietly.

"This is your perfect chance," Cami shot back. "And you're being a damned coward."

"That's the line, Camille," Emily warned sternly. "Not only is this my decision to make, but it's out of your realm of understanding. It's already an extremely complicated situation and I'm not going to complicate it further by being there and dumping extra emotion on his head."

Not to mention they still hadn't caught Foyet.

Cami pouted for a moment before opening her mouth to speak. The sound of a key scratching in the lock had her narrowing her eyes as she swiftly changed her mind, wiping her hands on the nearby towel. "I still think you're being a coward."

She was off before Emily could reply and the older Prentiss heard her daughter squeal, "Daddy!"

Matthew's deep voice answered, "How's my Gracie?"

Emily couldn't help her smile, nor the tears that sprang to her eyes. Matthew brought with him a comfort Emily had been missing, a comfort built on surviving hardships and a life time of friendship. She found herself blearily turning down the stove and hurriedly wiping her hands. She heard his footfalls and turned, just as he was rounding the corner. She wasn't sure who approached who or any of the little details like that and really, they didn't matter. What did was the fact that his arms were wrapped tightly around her and her head was buried in his neck, absorbing the pure Matthew-ness that she knew and loved. It was the same wash of comfort she'd felt the first time she'd been so terrified as she held her newborn baby daughter.

Emily hadn't even realized she was crying until she heard Matthew making quiet shushing noises into her hair. He picked her up the same way he'd lifted Cami as a little girl, carrying her to the couch. Eventually, she calmed. Matthew's hands came up, brushing the tears off of her cheeks.

"What happened?" he asked quietly, his fingers as soft as his words, worry in his eyes.

Emily sniffled slightly. "Hotch got shot."

Matthew was well aware of who Hotch was. "Is he okay? Do I need to take you to the hospital?"

"He's at home. He was just released," Emily answered.

"I'll drive you there," Matthew offered immediately.

"No," Emily stopped him. "It's fine."

"Obviously it's not, Em."

"It's just… a lot," she allowed quietly.

Matthew had long ago started hearing about Hotch and had long ago recognized the shift in Emily towards her superior. Emily had always possessed endless well-springs of compassion and sympathy so the fact that thing started to change right around the time the man was going through a bitter divorce was really no surprise to the man that had known Emily since she was a teenager. It was the depth of the emotion that was a little surprising.

He's okay then?" Matthew asked quietly.

"Doctors say he'll make a full recover," Emily allowed.

Matthew rubbed her back. "So everything is going to be okay then."

Emily heaved out a breath. "Eventually. There's still a lot of recovery left to do."

Matthew nodded slowly. "Okay then. Go splash some cold water on your face. Cami and I can finish dinner."

She put up a token protest, but Matthew simply ushered her up the stairs. Eventually, Emily sighed and climbed the stairs, only slightly better. There was still so much she couldn't comprehend and part of her really didn't want to try. It was dangerous territory, her emotions were, and, as she'd learned as a young child, were much safer wrapped up in boxes in her brain.

Much, much safer.

* * *

Hotch had never been more thankful for an elevator in all his life. He'd made it to Emily's condo, but most of him was very much stiff and sore. Still, the fact that he hadn't seen Emily bothered him much more than he'd bargained for. Not to mention there were a number of conversations he wanted to have with her.

Like who the hell was Cami?

The second time he'd woken, JJ had been the one sitting by his bedside and she'd managed to skilfully evade every question he'd asked about 'Cami'. Morgan too had been reluctant to talk about his blood donor and even pretty much blowing upon Dave hadn't gotten him the answers he was looking for.

"It's Emily's story to tell," he'd said sagely, seriously and every time he'd asked about the illusive woman.

Which worried him. He and Emily had gotten past the stage of hiding things from each other, hadn't they? He'd thought they were the type of friends that trusted each other with everything, so why was Dave so insistent that Emily had a different story to tell about Cami that he'd never heard before. Whatever it was, it had to be serious to inspire such deep loyalty from the team. It was these questions, this 'Cami', that had driven him from his apartment, doped up on pain killers.

But above Cami, he had a more pressing question. Why hadn't she come to see him in the hospital? He ran his good hand through his hair as he leaned on the wall outside of her condo. He'd been dreaming about her, not that he'd mentioned that to any one else. He'd been dreaming about her tears, about her words, about her being the one lying in the hospital bed and not him and it had torn at his heart. The only person he could even think of talking to about it was the same person that was haunting his every thought, plaguing his every moment.

He knocked on the door.

And almost stumbled back at the person who answered.

"Oh. Hi."

There was awareness in her voice. "Hello." She looked like Emily. Almost her identical twin. Could have been sisters. But he knew Emily didn't have a sister.

"Um… Okay. So, hold on a sec… You're… Hotch, right?"

And she knew him? Still, he nodded.

"Right. Okay. Um… God, this is awkward and complicated…" She chewed her lip in a way he completely recognized as Emily's. "Okay. Mom's upstairs. Did you want to come in?"

Mom? This woman was calling Emily _Mom_? He blinked.

"Gracie? Who's at the door?"

That was a man's voice, and Hotch found himself trying to stand up straighter.

"Hotch, I mean, Agent Hotchner… I mean…."

The man came around the corner, settling a hand on this young woman's shoulder. "Okay, sweetheart. Why don't you go get your mom, okay?"

The woman nodded, and the man pulled the door open further before holding out a hand. "Matthew."

Benton. Emily had mentioned him, mentioned how involved in her past he was. He was her closest friend besides him. He could deal with Matthew Benton.

"Aaron," he replied, grimacing slightly.

"Come on in, sit down. I'm sure the doctors told you that you shouldn't be up and moving yet."

Hotch had to give Matthew that one. The doctors had indeed told him to take it easy and thought it wasn't like he'd walked to Emily's apartment, he was still tired and still healing.

"Can I get you something? Water?"

He was in such a bizarre situation that he almost requested something alcoholic before remembering it wouldn't go with his pills. Damn. "Water's fine."

Feet came down the stairs and he turned slowly, trying to aggravate his injury. Emily stood there, looking torn between shock, fear and something he most definitely couldn't identify. Then The Mask washed over her face as she cleared her throat.

"Hotch."

* * *

_**Okay, I think the next chapters are going to be long drawn out conversations, but I haven't decided yet. We'll talk about Cami, obviously, but I haven't decided if hiding Cami is going to be enough to justify what I'm going to have Hotch do afterwards or if I'm going to have to throw in the depths of Emily's feelings with it. This one may actually be over shorter than I'd originally anticipated, which is kind of nice, kind of not.**_

_**Reviews are candy and Grandma's Jam!**_


	10. Chapter 9: Trying for Even

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER NINE**

_**Trying for Even**_

Matthew wasn't sure what he expected Emily's response to be. It could have been a whole number of things, running from happiness, to anger, to disbelief. He felt like an outsider, knew the way Emily looked at her Unit Chief was more than just friendly courtesy. She'd been worried, panicked even, as evidenced by her tears not ten minutes ago. But either the information was lost on the man who couldn't get up from the couch for fear of aggravating injuries that could have killed him, or he simply didn't know how to respond.

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked.

Matthew needed to get out of there. He needed to get Cami out of there. They were both buffers for Emily, both people she could deflect her emotions on and that was the last thing he wanted. Whatever was between Emily and this Hotch, they needed to figure it out on their own. Without the help of him or Cami.

"Em, Cami and I'll eat out. I promise to bring her back all safe and sound," Matthew said, not caring if Emily heard him or not, ushering Cami towards the door.

"I'll call if I'm not going to be home, okay, Mom? I'll see you later."

--

Emily had barely registered the fact that Matthew and Cami had left. Almost every molecule in her body was focused on the man in front of her, the man dressed in sweats and an old t-shirt that looked like it had seen better days. She could see the bandage of his wound beneath the cloth and found herself shivering. He'd been moments from death. Seconds even. She still couldn't process it.

She watched him, using every technique of reading body language she knew and had honed. He seemed to debate something before finally relaxing a little. "I came to see you."

That shocked her. Floored her even. She would never in a million years thought that he'd make such a telling admission. Sure, they'd been close friends prior to his shooting, but they'd always beaten around the bush, never just coming right out to say what the relationship meant to both of them.

"You never came to visit."

She cursed herself. "I did."

"When I was sleeping. What are you avoiding, Emily?"

This time, she cursed Dave. He was the only one who would ever let slip that she had been there, that she'd been watching in his sleep. "It doesn't matter."

He huffed. "Can you come sit down please?" he asked. "I am very much at a disadvantage."

She snorted. "You're the one that decided to come. How did you get here anyway? _Why_ did you come knowing it was a bad idea?" Still, she walked around the couch, perching on the coffee table instead of taking the other end of the couch.

His eyes met hers and though she could see the exhaustion in them, there was something else there, boiling under the surface with the intensity she'd come to know from him. "I'll answer your questions if you answer mine."

She cocked her head to the side. It was a fair deal and now that Matthew had been the one to open the door and he'd seen Cami, she did have some answering to do. "Okay."

--

Hotch took a deep breath. The next few minutes could very well make or break whatever relationship was between them. He'd made some decisions during his stay in the hospital. The only thing he'd really been able to do was think and he'd done that, slowly and carefully. "I take it that was Cami."

Emily nodded slowly. "Dave told you about her?"

"Dave mentioned her," he corrected subtly, but unable to mask his frustration. "So did Morgan, so did JJ, so did Reid." He didn't have to tell her that no one else had provided any information as to who this 'Cami' was. "She called you 'Mom'."

"As she rightly should," Emily said, with a chuckle she obviously didn't feel. "I gave birth to her."

"You don't have children."

"I have Cami. She hasn't been a child for a few years now," she responded to his blunt statement of fact.

"You never told me." He could hide the hurt and betrayal in his voice.

"She never came up," Emily replied quietly. "She's been at school since I started in the BAU, safe and sound away from everything here. "Camille Hannah Prentiss, if you'd like to look up the relevant birth information."

Part of him was irritated. She was being evasive, smart-assed about the whole thing. The other part of him was completely relieved. Obviously Cami was a carefully protected subject with her and she was lashing out in the only way she knew how, and a way he recognized. Emily had never done well with conflict and after so many years of keeping Cami to herself, Hotch couldn't be surprised at how carefully she protected her.

"The father?"

Emily looked away. "John Cooley."

He remembered the name. "He was killed."

She gazed out the window as she nodded, out onto the Washington Mall. "Hardest conversation I've ever had with her. Cami never knew her father."

He felt annoyance and pain rear up in him. "You never told her?"

Emily shot him a look. "Of course not. I was fifteen, Hotch and John wasn't mature enough to care for a child. My father brought me back to the States and I had Cami then turned around and finished my senior year at a public high school."

Still, as a father, he couldn't understand why she would have hidden something like that.

"Hotch, I knew it wouldn't matter," she said quietly. "Not to John. It did matter to Matthew."

"Benton." The one victim they'd been able to save.

"Right. He's as good as Cami's father, even though they don't share DNA. He's been here for her through every step of her life. He's been there for me when I thought I couldn't do it."

Suddenly, Hotch felt jealous. Matthew had supported Emily in the same way he'd finally admitted to himself he wanted to do. He'd thought he was a big part of her life, but now, with just finding out about Cami, Hotch wasn't so sure. A daughter, any child, was a big piece of information to keep from him, to keep from the team and he wasn't sure what to do with the information now that he had it.

"Hotch, the less people who knew about her the better. She lives in California, she rarely comes home because I'm working so much. The week I take off I go to California and we spend it in the sun and spray of the ocean. She's led as normal of a life as I can give her and I'm not going to jeopardize that by putting her out there for the world to see. I don't want to put her in danger because of my job."

As a parent himself, Hotch could understand that. Still, JJ had told the team about Henry. Granted, she'd been pregnant and it had been difficult to hide, but nevertheless, the team knew. They also knew about Jack. "We're friends, Emily."

"We are," she agreed instantly. "Nothing is going to change that, Hotch."

He wasn't sure he agreed. A daughter… "She gave me blood?"

"Yeah," Emily nodded, a fond smile flitting over her face. "None of the team matched and you needed blood to make it through the surgery."

He watched moisture fall unchecked down her cheek.

"You almost didn't make it," she whispered. "You'd lost so much blood by the time they got you to the hospital…"

Despite how much it pained him to lean forward and reach out his hand, he did so, resting it on her leg. "I didn't die, Emily."

"You could have," she replied simply and only with the sadness and fear. "If the bullet had been just a little to the right, if your neighbour hadn't called 9-1-1, if Cami hadn't been a match…"

"But all of that happened," he argued strongly, quietly and carefully. "I'm alive, I'm breathing, I'm here."

She threw herself at him, a move he hadn't anticipated and something she'd never done before. Sure, she used his shoulder as a pillow every once in a while, he wrapped a friendly arm around her shoulders to ward off a chill, but they'd never been in such close personal contact under such personal circumstances. For the time being, he ignored the twinge in his shoulder, grateful that she'd chosen – either consciously or subconsciously – to bury her head in the other side of his neck. He wrapped his good arm around her, trying to offer all of the comfort he could in his crippled state and trying not to pay too much attention to the way she was pressed so tightly against him.

"You were almost gone," he managed to make out through her sobs. "I almost lost you."

His hand came up, sliding a thumb under her chin to urge her head up. He met her eyes, holding her relentlessly. "Emily…"

She sniffled.

He couldn't stop himself from leaning forward and pressing his mouth to hers. He tasted the salt, but ignored it, coaxing her response. Her hand cupped his cheek before she eased away and looked down.

"I'm fine, Emily. I'm fine and I'm here and I'm not going anywhere."

She wiped her eyes, until he brushed her hands away with one of his own to wipe the tears away himself.

"I need you in my life, Emily. If Jack wasn't enough to make me fight my way to consciousness, you would have been." He smiled slightly. "You're right, I almost died and I've had a lot of time to think while recovering in a hospital."

Her eyes searched his, as if testing his sincerity. "So kissing me wasn't just to shut me up?"

Hotch's own chuckle was watery. "No," he answered quietly, "Kissing wasn't just to shut you up."

She nodded, looking away again. "God…"

It was a lot to take in, he knew it. It was hard on his end too, reconciling keeping Cami a secret from him with the fact that he realized best friend was an understatement for what he felt for her. He'd missed her in the hospital, had hoped day upon day that she'd actually come to visit him and talk, get him out of the inherent boredom.

"Yeah…" he agreed, resting his forehead on her shoulder, taking in her scent, one so familiar to him.

"Hotch, I can't… I don't…"

His heart stopped.

"I _want_ to, I think." She sighed. "This is all so confusing."

"It's no less confusing for me, sweetheart," he murmured.

"I think… I think we need to be careful, Hotch. I don't want to jump into anything because you almost died." She shivered.

"It would be a bad idea," he agreed. "But that doesn't mean that we can't try."

"Try?" she asked quietly.

"Try," he agreed. "We have a lot to talk about, there's no doubt about that."

She smiled slightly.

"Go to dinner with me, Emily," he said quietly.

"Like a date?" she asked, her fingers stroking through his hair.

"Like a date," he agreed.

"Now?"

Hotch looked down at himself, at the sweats, knowing he hadn't had a shower. "Maybe not now," he agreed. He sighed. "Though I could do with another pain-killer."

She sighed, pushing herself off of him. "I'll drive you home."

* * *

_**I was going to end it in this chapter, but then I realized that there was the whole Foyet issue that I never addressed and it's kind of the perfect way to have things even out... So this may be a lot longer than I'd anticipated. Should be fun. Maybe Cami'll come back into it. **_

_**Review?**_


	11. Chapter 10: Ghost

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER TEN**

**_Ghost_  
**

A week later, things were balancing out for Emily. Contrary to what she'd originally thought, it was easy to talk to Hotch, their relationship had actually stabilized. He was still weeks from returning to the office, but that was okay. She probably should have realized it was the calm before the storm. They all should have.

There was no indication that anything was wrong until that week after Hotch had been released. Unfortunately, George Foyet's trail had gone cold in the days following the shooting, though Emily knew Derek was still being a little more paranoid than he probably had to be. It was a good thing, actually, for his ID badge showed up in the BAU that week. They'd been doing mundane paperwork, Dave and JJ both reluctant to take them on a case without the rock of Hotch behind them. Otherwise, they'd probably have been somewhere in the continental US trying to track down a different serial killer. Instead, Derek had been at his desk when the rookie came bustling in.

"_SSA Morgan?"_

_Derek looked up, grateful for the reprieve. They all were, and it was the only explanation Emily had for her curiosity snapping into gear. _

"_Package."_

_Derek tore into it before the rookie had really even released it, then dropped the thing like it was a hot potato. "Hey!"_

_The kid turned, looking almost terrified. Emily probably would have been too from the tone of Derek's voice. _

"_Where did that come from?"_

_The kid shrugged. "A guy told me to give it to you."_

"_What guy," Emily demanded immediately, well aware that the only person who had Derek's badge, other than the new re-issued one Derek had gotten when they'd returned from Boston was George Foyet. Emily found her stomach churning painfully, subconsciously picking up the phone and hitting the first number on her speed dial._

"_What did he look like? What was he wearing?" Derek shot off quickly as Reid picked up his own phone. A panic settled over all of them as they started to scramble. _

"_I… I don't… Remember."_

"_You're going to sit down with a sketch artist, and you're going to remember," Derek said, taking the kid's arm and pulling him up to the conference room. The phone on Emily's end kept ringing and ringing and she found herself almost bouncing while Reid quickly rattled off the order to lock Quantico down, period._

"_Hotchner."_

"_Damnit," Emily hissed. "Where the hell were you? Why didn't you pick up the phone right away?"_

"_My phone was buried under things, Emily. I'm not moving as fast as usual," he said, reproach in his voice. _

"_I don't care if you were in the shower or… you answer the damned phone."_

"_What happened?" he asked, not bothering to pick the fight she quite obviously wanted. _

_Emily tried to keep herself together. "We're assigning you a protection detail. Foyet just dropped Derek's credentials off at the Bureau."_

But that was just the beginning. Psychological torture was perfect, exactly Foyet's plan. He'd done it with the bullet he'd left beside Derek's unconscious body, and he was doing it again now. They'd been tripping over themselves for the better part of a weekend, trying as best they could to get ahead of Foyet's game. Still, however, they had no concrete leads and finally, Dave had ordered them all home for a break.

It was for that reason that Emily was climbing her steps just after dropping Hotch off at his own apartment. Maybe some down time with Cami was exactly what she needed before going back to the Bureau. She needed time to be just Emily. Her keys jangled in her hand as she pulled them out of her purse before stopping dead in her hallway. The door was open, just a little bit. She pulled her gun out of it's holster, dropping her bags where she stood. She poked her head in, pushing it open with just her gun.

"Cami?" she called into the dark apartment. "Honey, are you home?"

There was no answer, and Emily felt her blood run cold. No way. Cami was a smart girl. There was no way she'd let in a stranger. Not her daughter. She climbed the steps her gun still drawn, quickly checking Cami's room and listening closely for the shower. When neither of those things yielded the presence of her daughter, Emily picked up the phone.

"Benton."

Emily didn't have time for cheerful greetings. "Is Cami with you?"

Matthew paused, as if sensing the gravity of the situation. "No."

Emily swore a blue streak.

"Calm down. Did you check with your dad?"

She hadn't, and they both knew it. But that call gave no information as to her daughter's whereabouts either and Emily felt panic settle in her stomach. She was just pacing back into the kitchen, when she noticed the note:

_If you stop hunting me, I'll give her back.  
For as long as we both shall live.  
'Til death do us part._

Emily vaguely recognized the lines. She folded it up carefully and left her apartment, calling Hotch first out of habit, before hanging up half way through the dialling process and calling Dave.

"Rossi."

Emily took a deep breath, willing herself to hold on just a little bit long. "Dave, it's Emily. Foyet's got Cami."

* * *

**_I know it's short, and I know it's a cliffhanger, but I had to do what I had to do. And I had to find a good way to bring Foyet back into the picture as well as keep Cami in it. At least that's how I'm justifying it in my head._**

**_Drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it!_**


	12. Chapter 11: Missing Persons

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

_**Missing Persons**_

PROMPT: Like Mother, Like Daughter (Happy Days)

--

This was the one thing Emily had wanted to avoid above anything else. There was a reason Cami wasn't part of her BAU life, and really, this was it. Emily wanted to ensure her daughter's safety and the best way for her to do that was to make sure no one else knew. She sat borderline catatonic in the conference room of the BAU, the rest of the team, including Hotch, brainstorming around her. At that moment, she had no idea what to do or where to even start.

Her daughter had been _kidnapped_ by a _serial killer_.

How do you ever come to terms with that? She suddenly felt so much more sympathy for the victims that came across JJ's desk. Her daughter couldn't be dead. There was no way Cami wasn't going to come back to her alive and in one piece.

"Emily!"

She was thankful to see Matthew. She stood and allowed him to wrap his arms around her, hugging him as tightly to her as he was hugging her. His support was exactly what she needed, someone who knew Cami, who knew what she was going through. She outright clung to him, needing him, needing his support the same way she had when Cami had just been born, when she'd found out that she was pregnant to begin with.

"Could Foyet have found out about Cami?" Reid asked suddenly, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

"What?" Emily gasped out.

Reid's mouth opened and closed for a moment before he finally spoke, "Could he have found out that Cami provided the blood that saved Hotch's life?"

"He would have had to be in the hospital," Derek replied, shaking his head.

Emily felt her chest tightening. She'd managed to keep back tears, forced herself to stay stoic so she could help find her daughter, but this was starting to get to be too much. She looked up at Matthew when he cleared his throat.

"Em and I are going to go get some tea."

For the first time in a long time, she didn't argue. She wanted to be there, but Matthew, in his omnipotent ways, had managed to pre-empt what was going to turn into a necessary exit and made it graceful. Still, she didn't miss the significant look Matthew exchanged with the rest of the team.

_Find Cami,_ it said, _alive.

* * *

_

The mood in the room shifted once Emily was gone. The tension was still there, crackling under their skin, but they all could step back now, think rationally without having the mother of the 'victim' in the room. They could turn this clinical.

Hotch looked around at his team. "Foyet could have been in the hospital. He stabbed himself, whether it was to be part of the investigation or to knock suspicion off of him he stabbed himself."

The room was quiet for a moment, and Hotch took that time to look around at his team. There was something they knew. "What is it?"

"Nothing case, really," JJ said immediately.

He raised an eyebrow.

JJ huffed out a breath, rolling her eyes before pinning his gaze. "You know this isn't your fault, right?"

Ah. Right. He should have known his team would see through it, would know that he blamed himself.

"It's not," Dave agreed. "And Emily doesn't blame you."

"Can we just focus on getting her back?" Hotch asked, looking down at the information they had on George Foyet, on his crimes. But this was different.

The case was different, beyond the personal. He'd kidnapped Cami, one female victim. It seemed too easy to say he'd done it to get to him. He'd been at home for at least a week, why hadn't he just come and taken him down again, this time for good? Hotch would have been by himself, no one around to interrupt, and Foyet would have been able to torture like he always wanted. So why had he taken Cami when there were easier ways to get to the one he really wanted?

It was the foundation of his guilt. Of course he blamed himself for what Emily was currently going through. Her _daughter_ was missing, kidnapped by a serial killer that wanted Hotch. That tore at his insides. He was dangerous to her, to her family. Hadn't this proven that now? He'd put her in danger by associating himself so intimately with her and now Cami was gone.

To top it off, Hotch felt jealous. She'd thrown herself at Matthew when he'd come in, but she'd barely looked at him. She blamed him too, that much was obvious. And he couldn't blame her. Still, he wanted to be the one comforting her through this. He wanted to be there for her, telling her everything would be okay, that they'd find Cami, bring Foyet in, and all of this wouldn't matter. It would all be over. And this time, they'd make damned sure Foyet couldn't and wouldn't escape. Even if it meant that Hotch had to make up a justifiable reason to put a bullet through his heart.

After this, George Foyet would never hurt his family. Any of them.

* * *

"Matthew, really, it's okay," Emily sighed, pushing the paper cup away.

"It's tea, Emily. Chamomile tea, and you need something to soothe your nerves. You're going to lose it."

Emily ran a hand through her already mussed hair. "How the hell can you sit there so calmly? This is your daughter too!"

"I know," Matthew replied, reaching out for her hand and resting his over hers. "But only one of us can panic at a time and right now, you need the comfort more than I do."

There was a moment of silence while Emily stared down into her cup. "What if she doesn't come back?"

"Em, come on. This is Cami we're talking about. She's a smart kid. A smart young woman," Matthew replied, his tone the same soothing one she recognized. He'd used that voice a million times through the years when she'd thought she was being a terrible mother, when she felt like Cami was losing out because of who she was, a teenaged mother.

"What does that mean?" Emily replied, anguish obvious in her voice.

"Cami's a lot like you, Em," Matthew answered. "She's smart, and she's resourceful."

"She's at the hands of a serial killer! It doesn't matter who you are, you're useless when facing that kind of fear."

"You know that's not true. You've taught her how to protect herself. She knows how to get through this by the simple merit of being your daughter. Even if she doesn't know it."

Emily knew the tears were welling in her eyes and knew, at this point, there was nothing she could do to stop them. "She has to come home, Matthew. She's my baby girl."

"She will, Em," Matthew said, gripping both of her hands tightly, hoping to convey the same support he'd always shown in her. "She's your daughter, your spitting image. She'll come home."

Neither of them were sure they could believe it.

* * *

_**I don't know when I'm going to get the next chance to update this. And by that, I mean I had it all planned out, but didn't write it down so I'm not sure where I'm going from here. I don't want to drag this out, but I don't want to speed through it either and that balance doesn't seem to want to find itself today. But I promise I haven't forgotten this, and I won't, I just have to figure out how to get from here to the end without it seeming too rushed.**_

_**Feedback is better than illegal drugs! Not that I would actually know...**_


	13. Chapter 12: The Return of Agent Prentiss

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

**_The Return of Agent Prentiss_  
**

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Hours later, Hotch sat at his desk in his office, the team's form of "protective custody" while they worked on tracking down Foyet. Emily and Matthew still hadn't returned from wherever they'd wandered off to and Hotch's jaw was starting to ache from how hard he'd been clenching it. It was difficult for him to see her going to someone else in a time of need and didn't help with his feelings of guilt. A soft knock drew his attention to the door and he knew, on any other less stressful day, he'd already have sensed that she was standing in his doorway.

"Hey," she greeted softly.

He assessed her quickly. Quiet, sure, but that was to be expected. He vaguely wondered if the numbness had set in yet. She looked calm and in control, the consummate agent and not a mother whose child had been kidnapped by a psychopath.

"Hey," he replied, just as quiet.

She took that as her cue to step through the door, taking a seat on the couch after closing the door. He blinked. She was so far away and with the way things were, he could feel the distance acutely. But after a moment, she patted the cushion beside her.

"Come sit with me, Aaron."

He couldn't decide whether or not he was reluctant to cross the distance. He felt alienated, both because he felt it was his fault and because she'd easily turned to Matthew in her time of need. Part of him knew it was stupid to worry. Matthew was someone Emily was used to, someone she often turned to for help, and that much he knew. Added on top of that was the idea that things between them were fresh and new, not as deeply seated as Emily and Matthew's friendship. Still, he lowered himself gingerly to the couch. It was still too early for him to be back in the office.

Her eyes darted over him quickly. "Everything okay? Anything hurt?" They were superficial questions voiced out of genuine caring. She sighed. "I'm sorry I had to bring you in here."

"I'm not," he replied, understanding what she meant. "I'd rather be here than worrying at home."

She took his hand then, bringing it up to her lips briefly. "This isn't your fault."

The tightening in his chest eased since the words were coming from her and he knew all of her tells.

"I could never blame you for this. We made some grave errors in judgement, let our guards down too soon, but at the end of the day... Foyet's behind this. Not you, not me, not any fault of ours."

He sighed. In some ways, it did help. It was nice to know Emily didn't blame him, relieving to know she didn't hold him accountable for the fact that Cami was in the hands of a serial killer, but at the same time, it didn't relieve the part of him that said he shouldn't have even approached her. He should have kept her, kept Cami, safe. If he hadn't been so _selfish_, so focused on what had happened in the hospital, there was the chance that Cami would be hanging out with her mother right now.

"Hey."

Her hand on his cheek brought his attention back to her dark eyes. There was nothing but calm determination and unwavering calm in her gaze, in her face, in her body language.

"Cami may not be an FBI agent, but she can hold her own. She's a smart kid. She's _my_ kid. It doesn't matter what Foyet throws at her, Cami..." She laughed slightly, bitterly. "Cami can play the spoiled brat like the best of 'em. And we know he won't hurt her. He's not after her."

Hotch swallowed. No. Foyet wasn't after Cami at all. He was after Hotch and he was using Cami to get what he wanted. Hotch wasn't about to admit it, but much to his chagrin, it was working. His heart, his chest, hurt, and not because of the bullet wound in his shoulder that still wasn't completely healed. It had everything to do with the empathy he felt. Jack wasn't anywhere close to Cami's age, but that didn't mean his heart was breaking for the woman in front of him and the daughter that was missing.

"Em..."

She shook her head. "Don't go down that road, Aaron," she told him softly, her thumb stroking his cheek. "I need you to have hope for Cami too. I need you to believe that she can get out of this in one piece."

His hand came up to her wrist, gripping it in his strong hand. They both knew George Foyet's profile. Cami was an asset until he had what he really wanted. And what he really wanted was Hotch. He sighed as her forehead pressed against his. "He won't touch her until he knows. He can't watch us here, he can't see us suffering. He has no idea if this is hurting anyone but you and Matthew."

He felt her nod against his forehead. "As much as it _kills_ me to know he's got Cami, the best thing for us to do is keep our heads on straight. To find her, we have to be at our best. We have to be us. There is no one else I would trust with this than the team. Together, we're going to find my baby girl, Aaron. And when we do, we're going to take Foyet out."

"Hotch! Em!" The excitement was palpable in Reid's voice seconds before he was knocking on the door.

Emily was the one that tore open the door, but not before taking a deep breath.

"Garcia's got her."

* * *

_**This is short, I know this is short, but it was the most logical place to break.**_

_**Please leave feedback! It's every author's heroin. Or so I've heard.**_


	14. Chapter 13: Decoy

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

**_Decoy_**

"This girl is becoming more and more like you the more I learn," Garcia said as Hotch, Emily and Reid joined the rest of the team in the tech's lair. "GPS in her cell phone came on all of thirty seconds ago."

Emily gripped Hotch's hand without thought. "Do you have a location?"

"Of course, my angel. Three, two, one!"

Sure enough, the computer beeped happily and, with a few swift key strokes, a map and address popped up on the screen.

"Garcia-"

"Address is sent to all relevant Blackberries," the tech interrupted Dave with an unrepentant smile in the elder profiler's direction.

Hotch squeezed Emily's hand. "Let's suit up."

"You're not coming," Dave contradicted strongly already on his way out the door, back to the bullpen.

Hotch followed inadvertently tugging Emily along with him. "You can't make that call."

"Actually," Reid stepped in, the whole team having followed. "Dave's acting Unit Chief until you're cleared for duty."

"Which you aren't," Dave shot over his shoulder. "You've only been out of the hospital for a week after being shot."

The growl Hotch emitted was only audible to Emily's ears and she tugged on his hand to get his attention. "Dave's right and you know it," she said quietly. "The safest place for you is here. And-" she continued when he opened his mouth to argue. "You don't need to save her because it _wasn't your fault_. We all thought she was perfectly safe."

Silence reigned for a moment, the whole team having stepped in the middle of the hall. It had been a long time since anyone other than Dave had talked to Hotch. But in this situation, considering it was Cami missing, Emily almost had the right.

"We can't keep you safe and try and find Cami," JJ pointed out quietly. "Foyet wants you. Why would you want to give him what he wants?"

Hotch's brow pinched and they all knew what it meant. They were right. He didn't like it.

"It's not like you won't be hocked up to the radio frequency," Emily said, a warm affection in her teasing.

"Excellent," Dave nodded succinctly. "Now that that's been fixed, let's go get your daughter."

* * *

Emily had to take a deep breath as she readjusted the grip on her gun. Adrenaline raced through her veins, a combination between an anger at Foyet for everything he'd taken from them all, and the usual rush of excitement that came with a take-down.

"If George Foyet is in there," Dave warned, his eyes fixed on Derek. "We take him alive."

Derek looked less than impressed with the idea, and Emily really couldn't blame him. Foyet had screwed with them too long. Dave looked at the crumbling house and checked his safety.

"Derek and Emily, around back. Clear the basement. JJ, Reid, you're with me. We clear the upstairs and the front."

They split then, Emily and Derek sneaking around to the back of the house. The door was unlocked as Derek turned the doorknob. He shot her a look before they headed in. The kitchen was clear, so was the empty room next to it. The hallway between held the door to the basement and Derek led the way down.

"Main floor is clear," Dave's voice floated over the radio.

"So is upstairs," JJ agreed.

Emily's heartbeat picked up. Cami had to be down in the basement. It was the only place left. They'd taken three steps when Derek stopped, holding up a hand. Emily listened carefully, her body automatically moving when the whimpers reached her ears. Derek's arm came up to stop her. They couldn't rush in. They started moving again slowly, Emily forcing herself to concentrate on every step she took. A light just around the corner had her heart rate jumping again. Derek's hand came up, counting down with his fingers…

…Three…

…Two…

…One…

Go!

Guns drawn, they slipped around the corner, both of them searching half of the room for evidence of the bastard, Foyet. Cami was all but screaming through a gag, jumping as best she could in the chair she was tied to.

"Clear," Emily said.

"Clear," Derek agreed.

Emily rushed to her daughter's side, holstering her weapon at the same time. She wrapped her arms around Cami. "It's okay, Grace. It's okay."

But that didn't stop Cami's movements, so Emily pulled away, cupping her face. Cami's eyes were wild, her body bucking violently.

"Okay, calm down, sweetheart." She pulled the gag away from her daughter's mouth and Cami's eyes met hers as she took a deep breath.

"He's gone after Agent Hotchner."

Emily froze.

"What?" Derek asked as he tried to undo one of the ties on her wrists.

"I'm a distraction," she replied almost hysterically. "He's gone after Agent Hotchner."

* * *

_**I'm working on 14 as we speak. It has the potential of either being up by the end of the weekend, or the end of next week, but I'll do my absolute best for the former.**_

_**Thanks for reading!**_


	15. Chapter 15: Showdown

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

**Showdown**

Emily could not breathe.

"Damnit!" Derek swore behind her, but Emily couldn't focus on anything.

"Mom?" Cami called, voice raw. "Mom, come on."

Then she was swearing, every word she'd ever learned in every language she could think of while she whipped out her cell phone. Then she swore more when his cell phone and office phone both went to voicemail. "We have to get back to the Bureau," she said, shaking her head. Her fingers trembled as she tried to make her phone work again. She needed to get in touch with Hotch. She needed to warn him.

"Em, come on." Derek was taking her elbow and she allowed him to guide her out of the room.

"Why is he not answering his damned phone?" Emily said under her breath as she heard his voicemail click on again.

"What's wrong?" Dave asked.

"Foyet's after Hotch," Derek answered. "Cami was a distraction."

Dave sighed. "Shit."

* * *

Hotch had been single-minded when it had come over the speaker that Cami was perfectly safe. He needed to get to that crime scene, needed to see the place for himself to see if Foyet left any clue as to where he was off to next. He was the expert on the profile, there was no one else who would know all of Foyet's intricacies as he would. He had his gun tucked in his pants, his badge in his hand as he fumbled with the keys.

"Going somewhere, Agent Hotchner?"

Hotch whirled, his hand automatically going for his weapon, but Foyet had his gun trained on him first.

"Ah, ah, ah. Why don't you throw that my way?"

"Not going to happen," Hotch replied, voice low and deadly. _Don't show him fear_.

"You're just looking to get shot again, aren't you? Blame yourself, do you, for those other deaths? Think that getting shot will somehow make it all better, make it all worth it?"

Hotch kept his mouth shut. He wasn't going to give Foyet the satisfaction of an affirmation and he didn't want to risk lying.

Foyet almost cackled. "You thought you'd outsmarted me, thought you'd found me, didn't you? I've been watching you, Agent Hotchner and I've done my research."

Which meant he'd known exactly who Cami was when he took her, exactly the reaction he'd get out of not only the team, but out of Hotch himself. The guilt, the pain, the thought that Foyet had taken Cami in an attempt to turn the team against him…It all made perfect sense. But he, and the rest of the team, had been way too focused on finding Cami, on re-establishing the status quo, for anyone to step back and think that maybe all of this had been completely part of Foyet's plan. And now here he was, in a parking garage, with no way out.

* * *

"He's on the security cameras getting into Quantico," Derek said. They were gathered around the front gate where Foyet had taken out the front guards.

"You've got it, my chocolate Adonis," Garcia agreed, on speaker phone through Derek's cell. "We've got him coming onto campus, and heading into the parking garages. He's on a handful of cameras climbing, climbing, climbing-" She cut herself off with a gasp.

"Garcia!" Emily knew her voice was filled with fear and trepidation, even as she supported Cami on one side, JJ on the other.

"He's got Hotch," Garcia replied, tears obvious in her voice.

"Where, Baby Girl. You have to tell us where."

There was a little whimper before she finally came back on the line, "Level five. He's got a gun."

Derek snapped the phone shut. "Let's go."

"Wait!" Dave stopped him. "We can't go in there guns blazing. If Foyet's got a gun and Hotch… That's a lot of leverage."

"We don't have time to call in a tactical squad," JJ pointed out. "We've got us."

Derek looked at each of them, redialling Garcia again "Then we're just going to have to make use of what we've got. Mama, I need you to get me a map of that parking level."

* * *

Hotch grunted as he took another punch to the gut. Only moments before, when Foyet had been close enough to striking distance, the sociopath had withdrawn a switchblade, flicking it open threateningly. Hotch had zeroed in on it, focusing on the exact moment Foyet made to strike. Now the knife and gun had skittered away under cars and Hotch and Foyet had only their hands and bodies as weapons. Even Hotch's gun had been lost somewhere in the cars of the night shifts.

"Come on, Agent Hotchner. You're in no shape to be in a hand-to-hand combat," Foyet taunted, a smirk on his face that Hotch wanted nothing more than to scrape off with the switchblade.

Unfortunately, he knew as well as Foyet did that he wasn't going to be the one coming out on top of this battle, at least not in his current physical state. His healing wound had been throbbing, but he'd been shoving the feeling to the back of his mind. He had other things to worry about, first and foremost being his own survival. But now that Foyet had drawn attention to his pain, he had to admit he could feel it. He'd never admit it outloud.

Foyet was almost gleeful as they traded blows until, eventually, he had Hotch up against one of the cars, his arm crushing the agent's windpipe. Then he leaned forward, whispering, "I'm going to watch you die, watch the life drain out of you, and then you know what? I'm going to go after the rest of your little family. All because you didn't make the-"

Then he was splattered with blood and brains and Foyet was collapsing in front of him the sound of the glass of a car window shattered behind him. As the sociopath's body fell to the ground, Hotch blinked at Emily, her gun still raised, her eyes hard. It only took a few seconds for her to collapse in on herself, her gun falling and clattering to the ground as her knees gave way beneath her. He managed to struggle to her side, dropping beside her. She turned into him, despite the disgusting blood covering him, burying her face against him, her hand fisting in his shirt.

He held her close, as they sat there, the rest of the world working around them, speeding around them. Finally, she raised her head, gasping. "Jesus."

"You had the shot," he reassured her, though not only did he wish she hadn't had to kill someone, even if it was Foyet, he wanted to have been the one to put a bullet through the bastard's brain.

She didn't seem even placated by this, her eyes still completely distressed. "He almost had you."

"He never had me," Hotch answered, his arms coming around her. "Never."

"His hands were around your throat," she contradicted, shaking her head, fingers coming up to brush over the red, irritated skin. "He could have _killed_ you."

"But he didn't," he said quietly. "He didn't, Emily." _And he never will again_.

Derek and Dave stood over Foyet's body, both of them not bothering to hide how close they were watching Emily and Hotch.

"Hotch? EMTs are here," JJ's quiet voice startled both him and Emily. "They need to check you out."

He almost countered her when Emily's fist tightened in his shirt.

"Do not even think about saying 'no', Hotchner," she said with such conviction that Hotch would have felt utterly terrible to say no.

"Okay," he croaked out. "Okay."

* * *

**_One quick little epilogue, and this baby's done!_**

**_I'm so sorry it took me FOREVER to update this. And I'm sorry if you don't feel like Foyet showing up in the parking garage was plausible. I had literally THE HARDEST time coming up with a way to weave him into this after I managed to back myself into a corner in the last chapter. _**

**_For those of you who are still with this, I'd appreciate the feedback!_**


	16. Epilogue: And They All Lived

Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

**EPILOGUE**

_**And They All Lived**_

Cami smiled from the doorway as she watched Agent Hotchner and her mother. Emily had barely left the man's side since they'd admitted him to the hospital, concerned for his shoulder wound and the knocks to the head Agent Hotchner had taken in his altercation with George Foyet.

That had been the man's name. Cami had cajoled all of the information out of various members of her mother's team while they sat around Agent Hotchner's room, no one willing to budge. Internal Affairs was going to be doing an investigation, but the whole thing was on tape at the Bureau office, so it seemed like no one was too concerned for their job. It had been a good shoot. It had been a good save.

Cami found her heart warning as she watched her mother and Agent Hotchner. She'd long known her mother's feelings were changing, but watching them together gave her hope. All she wanted was for her mother to be happy, to have someone in her life she could share her love with. It was love that had been lavished on Cami for so long and she was honestly happy to see Emily was starting to share herself with Agent Hotchner too.

"They're good together, aren't they?"

Cami smiled at JJ, cradling little Henry. "Yeah."

"It's been a long time coming," JJ said. "We've been watching it happen. It just needed this little kick. And I think Foyet being gone will open him up. He won't be so guarded."

Cami let out a snort. "Have you met my mother? There's no way she'll _let_ him be guarded." She paused a beat. "He wouldn't make a terrible step-father."

"He'd treat your mother with love and adoration," JJ agreed softly. "They're a lot alike, you know."

"Oh?"

"Mmhmm. Even Hotch… He's got so much love to give. He gave everything he could to his ex-wife, but it just wasn't enough for her. She always wanted more. I can't see your mom demanding anything more than he can honestly give."

"He'll take good care of her?" Cami asked JJ, her concern obvious only in her voice.

"He'll take excellent care of her, Cami. You will never have to worry about that."

As she was waved into the room, taking in the smile on her mother's face and the one she could see in Agent Hotchner's eyes, even Cami had to admit that maybe everything was going to work out for the better. Maybe her mother would end up with her own happily ever after. After all, Prentiss women were not fools, they were not stupid and Cami doubted her mother was about to give up an opportunity like Agent Hotchner, good or bad, ups and downs.

That was enough for Cami.

* * *

**_Short little ending, all from Cami's POV. _**

**_Let me know if you liked the whole thing guys. I really appreciate it!_**


End file.
